The Ford Deal That Got Away From Perella Weinberg

By Dana Cimilluca

Perella

Perella Weinberg Partners almost reeled in a big one, a really big one.

According to the Detroit News, the Ford family at a meeting last month considered hiring the fledgling investment bank started by mergers-and-acquisitions legend Joseph Perella for advice on what to do with its 40% voting stake in Ford Motor.

Even though the family ultimately decided not to hire Perella Weinberg (or anyone else, at least for now), according to the article, it’s clear Perella is trying to line up the kind of client many in the banking world expected him to already have by now, more than a year after announcing plans to start his firm. Indeed, in a New York Times article last month (subscription required), PWP said it had worked on far more deals — totaling roughly $60 billion — that never saw the light of day, than the $34 billion it has gotten credit for. (The firm isn’t in the top 25 in the ranking of merger advisers this year, according to Thomson Financial.)

Weinberg

And although Ford’s stock market value has withered to just $15 billion amid a loss of competitiveness to its Japanese rivals, when debt is included, it still has a so-called enterprise value of a whopping $161 billion, according to Capital IQ. Considering that the league tables measure deals by that yard stick, if it had landed the assignment and some kind of a buyout did result, PWP would instantly have been vaulted into the ranks of the real big boys, quieted its critics and probably earned a nice little fee in the process.

The assignment could have been doubly sweet given that advising the Ford family is a role that Goldman Sachs Group, which rules the M&A roost, would have been expected to land. After all, Sydney Weinberg, the grandfather of Peter Weinberg, Perella’s partner, was a trusted adviser to none other than Henry Ford himself and advised the auto maker on its initial public offering in 1956.

Comments (5 of 28)

Ford can still hit a Grand Slam if they will start thinking outside of the box. A truely origional Hydrogen/Electric vehicle is just around the corner...home electrolisis of water to hydrogen is not complicated, and the energy to get the car up to speed is handled by that system...wind energy captured over the trunk of the car in a simple horizontal generator recharges the deep-cycle batteries to keep speed up where we need it on the open road...No gas needed...Saudi Arabia and Iraq/Iran/Venezuela can go pound Salt!!!!

5:06 pm May 13, 2007

john church wrote :

I receive a pension from Ford-glad that isn't all-what does it take to WAKE up the Ford family? They have milked the golden cow for long too long!

5:06 pm May 13, 2007

john church wrote :

I receive a pension from Ford-glad that isn't all-what does it take to WAKE up the Ford family? They have milked the golden cow for long too long!

5:06 pm May 13, 2007

john church wrote :

I receive a pension from Ford-glad that isn't all-what does it take to WAKE up the Ford family? They have milked the golden cow for long too long!

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